The Client and Brief

The Director of Estates is a senior role at the University of Oxford, providing strategic leadership and overseeing the efficiency, growth, and success of Estates Management services. Reporting to the Registrar, the postholder will work closely with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Planning and Resources) and the Chair of the Building and Estates Sub-Committee.

They will engage with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and lead the University’s management of its estates supply chain. The Director will also be responsible for developing and delivering the Estate Strategy, aligned with the University’s broader institutional goals, including its ambitious sustainability agenda.

Overcoming Challenges

The role is based at a leading Russell Group university with a major medical research campus, ranked first globally for the past nine years. With the previous Director of Estates serving for over a decade and widely respected across the sector, the bar was set high.

Our Process

We ran a dual campaign of an advertised solution via LinkedIn and jobs.ac.uk in conjunction with  targeted search approaches to estates leaders across higher education, pharma, life sciences and the wider public sectors such as local government and the NHS. The target market also included Real Estate and landed occupiers in the private sector. 

The successful candidate was operating in a similar senior leadership capacity with another Russell Group institution with a track record of presiding over comparable complex and diverse capital projects which included the Molecular Science Building, Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, Birmingham Health Innovation Campus and Institute of Translational Medicine. They also possessed a noteworthy background in delivering cutting-edge sustainability solutions with a Siemens led Smart Campus. 

The Campaign in Numbers

3225
MARKETING BROCHURE VIEWS
238
FORMAL APPLICATIONS
25
LONG-LIST CANDIDATES
9
SHORT-LIST CANDIDATES
5
CANDIDATES FORMALLY INTERVIEWED